The Danaids

The Daniads were the fifty daughters of Danaus, who were descendants of the Nile dwelling Io. The Danaids' cousins were the fifty sons of Danaus's brother Aegyptus, and each had wishes to mary the Daniads. The reaction of the daughters was something like, "Eww!" and they refused to marry their cousins.

The Daniads fled with their father to the island of Argos where they were recieved well by the Argines and promised protection from the sons of Aegyptus. When the sons of Aegyptus arrived to fight for their brides, they were of course denied because of a law that prohibited any woman to be married against her will.

For some strange reason, the story stops at that point briefly, and picks up at the wedding of the Daniads to the sons of Aegyptus? Why? We don't know! We do know, however, that they still did not wish to be married to their cousins. We know this because at the wedding feat, Danaus is shown giving each of his daughter's a dagger to murder their husband that night. Each and every one of them did with the exception of one. This daughter who refused to kill her suitor was named Hypermnestra..

On the night Hypermnestra was supposed to kill her bridegroom Lynceus, she found she could not do it. She forgot her promise to her father and sisters and helped Lynceus escape. When her father and sisters found out what Hypermnestra had done, they were not happy at all. So her father imprisoned her for her disobedience.

There are two endings that have been written to this story. One ends right where Hypermnestra is thrown into prison by her father. The other ending says how Hypermnestra was later reunited with Lynceus and had a son with him. Their son's name was Abas, the great-grandfather of the Greek hero Perseus.

As for the forty-nine sisters, they were forced to carry water pitchers for eternity full of holes. They had to take water pitchers to a river, fill it up, and take it back...somewhere. However, since the jars were full of holes, they had continue this chore for eternity.

Go Home

We have made every reasonable attempt to insure that our web pages are educationally sound and do not contain links to any questionable material or anything that can be deemed in violation of the DSD Acceptable Use Policy.
This page is maintained according to the DSD Internet Publishing Guidelines
by FFJH Webmasters.
©1999 Tiffiny Whitney - All rights reserved.
Last update: 5/11/99 *<%^)